Pages

Friday, December 18, 2015

"Hold Me 'Til the Mornin' Comes" by Paul Anka

Pop Bits: Anka's first album of the 80s, Both Sides of Love, yielded the minor Pop chart entry "I've Been Waiting for You All of My Life" (#48). RCA didn't seem that thrilled with the results and Anka moved over to Columbia for a new venture. Teaming up with superstar songwriters David Foster and Michael McDonald (The Doobie Brothers), Anka recorded the LP Walk a Fine Line. This first single was issued and it became a hit at AC reaching the #2 spot. The ballad crossed over to the Pop chart and just barely reached the Top 40. The album would produce one more AC chart entry with "Second Chance" (#14), but this song would be the legendary performer's final Pop chart entry.

ReduxReview: Yeah, this has Foster's hand all over it. I'm surprised he didn't produce the recording as it sounds quite similar to what he was doing for Chicago at the time, especially with Peter Cetera's voice on board (see below). In this case, it is a good thing as it's arguably the best song Anka had done since his 70s comeback period. It should have done a bit better, but I'm sure Pop radio wasn't all that interested in promoting an old guard artist. If this had been given a full Foster production and done as a "duet" with Chicago, this would have done a lot better. Regardless, it was a solid song to end Anka's Pop chart career.

ReduxRating: 7/10

Trivia: Double Shot! 1) David Foster co-wrote this song with Anka. But even though Foster did not produce the tune, his connections came in handy. Peter Cetera, the lead singer of Chicago, dropped in to sing the vocals on this track. Foster had helped to revitalize Chicago recently guiding them to their first #1 hit in six years, "Hard to Say I'm Sorry." Michael McDonald also lent his pipes to three of the songs he co-wrote with Anka for the album. 2) During the sessions for this album, Anka co-wrote a song with Michael Jackson. Intended as a duet, "I Never Heard" was recorded in a demo version by the pair. Issues arose (a long story about Jackson allegedly stealing the master tapes from Anka's studio) and the project was shelved. In 1991, the song did see the light of day when Puerto Rican singer Sa-Fire recorded it for her album I Wasn't Born Yesterday. Then in 2009, to help promote his upcoming tour Jackson recorded a song titled "This Is It." Unfortunately, his death put a halt to everything and the song was not released. Later, Sony revived the song to help promote the film "Michael Jackson's This Is It." With Jackson's brothers adding vocals, the song was issued to radio stations for airplay. Very quickly, listeners recognized the song as being the same as the one Sa-Fire recorded. The unfortunate thing is that Anka was not given credit. Apparently, no one on Jackson's estate team realized that the song was originally written and recorded by the pair since the title had been changed and only Jackson's name appeared on the recording. Anka called foul and the estate recognized the mistake and fixed it. In 2013, Anka released his duet version with Jackson keeping the "This Is It" title. It appeared on Anka's Duets LP. Another song the pair wrote was later uncovered called "Love Never Felt So Good." It was reworked for the 2014 posthumous Jackson album Xscape and got issued as a single. It reached #9 on the Pop chart.